For 40 minutes Thursday night, the Colorado Avalanche -- a 112-point team that finished third overall, yet still embraces an underdog slogan -- seemed intent showing why it shouldn't be them in these NHL playoffs.

Their defence needs to be better. So did their offence. Oh, and their goaltending was a little spotty, too.

But they also showed why you can never count any team coached by Patrick Roy out of a fight, rallying back from two goals down in the third period to post a 5-4 overtime victory in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Minnesota Wild.

The Avalanche rallied hard, cutting a 4-2 deficit to 4-3 with seven minutes left in the third, pulling their goalie with three minutes left in regulation, tying it on Paul Stastny's goal with 13.4 seconds left and then bringing down the house when Stastny scored again at 7:27 of OT.

"It's the kind team we are," Stastny said of the comeback drama. "We're confident in ourselves, and it starts with the coaching staff. Pulling the goalie with three minutes left shows confidence in us. (Roy) never plays it safe. If he thinks that's our best chance, we believe in that, too."

Pulling the goalie with three minutes? Kind of a gutsy call for a rookie coach.

"We almost did it with four minutes when they had their third pairing out there," Roy said. "But we thought that might be a little pushy. You have to go with your gut feeling -- that's what the playoffs are."

The Wild, a team built on protecting leads, had to be as stunned as everyone in the Pepsi Center.

They were 27-1-4 when leading after 40 minutes, and they were leading after 40 minutes. By two goals.

So they had to figure they were free and clear.

They weren't.

"I think despite the outcome we did a lot of good things," said Wild winger Zach Parise. "Unfortunately, we made a couple of mistakes in the third period. We were in the driver's seat, but we made a couple of mistakes -- and they ended up in our net."

"I don't think we responded as well as we have in the past," added Wild head coach Mike Yeo. "I think we can be a lot better."

The Wild nearly won when the Avalanche had their goalie pulled, but home-side defenceman Erik Johnson raced back and swatted away a puck about three inches from the goal-line, setting up the Stastny heroics in regulation.

It was a brilliant win, but the Avs will be the first to tell you they dodged a major bullet.

After the Avalanche opened the scoring when Landeskog found a soft spot between Wild defenders in the slot and buried a nice feed from Stastny at 13:14, the Wild took over, scoring four of the next five -- thanks to goals by Charlie Coyle, Ryan Suter, Erik Haula and Kyle Brodziak -- to put the hosts in a very deep 40-minute hole.

Avs goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who broke Roy's franchise record for wins in a season with 41, was not especially sharp in this one, giving up four goals on the Wild's first 18 shots -- not that he got a lot of help from his defence.

An area that many predicted would be the Avalanche's soft, white underbelly in this series was exactly that in Game 1. The defence gave up too many odd-man rushes and left too many Wild players unguarded on front of the net.

And while five Avalance players finished the season with as many points as the Wild's leading scorer Jason Pominville (60), they managed 14 shots through 40 minutes in digging themselves the 4-2 deficit.

It almost cost them Game 1 and will surely catch up with them if they don't shore things up.

"We have to remember it wasn't an easy win," said Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog. "Minnesota played a great game -- they came on hard, especially in the second period. We have to come out firing on all cylinders Saturday."